Wednesday, November 08, 2006

I'm not obsessed with elections or politics...I'm afraid I'm jaded in that regard.

I don't blog about politics, because too many people do it and they do it better.

I personally think politicians tend to muck things up, are too caught up in raising money and feathering their own nests and that the only way to play the game is to steal money from you and me and pretend to give it back to us.

But my opinion really doesn't matter.

The "news media" - and I am one - are quick to point out how the Democrats have sent a referendum to President Bush about the war, about the economy (anyone checked on that lately by the way?), about Congress, Donald Rumsfeld or Nancy Pelosi, or John Kerry or stem cell research...or whatever dunks your donut.

I think they're wrong.

Voter turnout is being hailed as "slightly higher" than most off year elections, an indication of voter dissatisfaction, voter determination, voter indigestion...you name it.

The fact is roughly 40 percent of the registered voters in the United States bothered to vote.

Let's all do the math together....100 minus 40 = 60.

Sixty percent of registered voters didn't go to the polls.

One could argue that 60 percent of Americans are too lazy to vote. I don't really believe that's true.

I don't blame you for not voting. In fact, I think in this election that's the issue that is being overlooked. Sixty percent of Americans who bothered to register to vote...didn't cast a ballot.They voted with their feet...and their feet stood still.

Not with early voting, drive by voting, absentee balloting...not with virtually every conceivable way to make it easy to vote, almost two-thirds of Americans who registered to vote said, "Nah. Why bother?"

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we are that lazy. Maybe it's too easy to vote. Maybe the folks who didn't vote are too stupid and we should be glad they didn't vote because they don't pay enough attention.

Maybe...but I don't think so.

"The Independent Election Commission of Iraq (IECI) said its initial tally of 72% had been little more than a guess based on local estimates. The panel has since revised the estimated turnout at 60% to 75%." - That quote is from the most biased news source I could think of, and it took me a while, AlJazeera.com, talking about the election...in Iraq.

Something is wrong folks.

There's got to be a better way. I don't know what it is, but when nearly two-thirds of the REGISTERED voters in this country don't vote...I think the REAL referendum that's being sent to Washington is:"I don't care, you aren't listening to me anyway!"

I think 60 percent of registered American voters are saying, "I give up!"

And, blast it all, I don't think anyone is ever going to hear them because they're just muttering to themselves.